I just bought an '01 reg cab Dakota with the 2.5L and 5 speed for my son. It's only got 55K miles. Overall the truck runs well, it has more power than I thought such a heavy truck with a 4 banger would have.

However it's got a pretty big surging problem when accelerating hard over 3000 RPM or so. If you've got your foot buried in the throttle, it bucks and surges as if you were pushing on and off the throttle.

Anyone know what may cause this? Throttle position sensor?

So far all I have done is put in a new air filter and put some fuel injector cleaner in the gas tank.

Thanks in advance!

 

In case somebody needs to search for this, I guess I'll just answer my own question. New Throttle Position Sensor, good cleaning of idle air control. Runs like a top!

 

I bought my truck 3 months ago, same sort of thing. I changed the spark plugs/wires, air filter then reset the computer (unplug the negative wire from your battery for 10+ minutes) and it seemed to fix itself. I also put a Fuel Injector cleaner additive into my gas tank for 3ish trips. Works great, no hesitating in the engine whatssoever. It might not be the same problem, but maybe it helps